Being a developer, I have become increasingly aware of the progressively growing volume of questions and general lack of knowledge about more advanced development topics for both web and application level languages. Compared to several years ago, the number of inqueries has exploded enormously. With the coming release of Microsoft's Palladium project and the emergence of Linux into office as well as personal desktop markets, many concerns are also repeatedly being raised as to the technical workings and overall potential for the Linux operating system.

While there are a large number of websites dedicated to offering a basic understanding of Linux and the easiest ways to integrate it as a replacement to a Windows desktop environment, there are considerably fewer websites which cover the more in-depth concepts and technical workings of the operating system. Likewise, many websites have been established which provide a learning source for basic to intermediate development in a wide variety of programming languages, but articles on more advanced topics are often lacking or are simply not present.

When searching for more advanced content relating to the above topics, results are generally marginal and spread out over dozens of smaller websites, making them difficult to find and more difficult to use as active reference. I recently became interested in establishing a website more focused on providing a comprehensive set of articles, resources and services which would be catered towards users who have existing experience working with the more technical computer related concepts.

After spending a considerable amount of time planning content and deciding on the general theme, it was decided that a cross between Black Sun and Dark Wired would be ideal for that type of website, and preperations were made to launch the website on January 31st. The website will be running on a small network of servers and will be using a custom display system to serve content to the viewers, but it will be difficult to run the entire website and create the content without assistance from other members of the community.

In order to help manage the workload and ensure the timely release of new content, I am seeking several qualified people who are willing to contribute to the website via either articles, tutorials, scripting projects or other appropriate content. Developers are the obvious choice for being able to create such content, but anyone with technical knowledge and the ability to write in a clear and understandable way is encouraged to contact me. In addition, anyone with content suggestions, requests or comments are encouraged to forward their opinions to help further improve the theme and atmosphere of the website.

For those interested in contributing, you may direct all inqueries to [email protected] Please note that resumes are not required, but an overview of your skills and what you can offer the website is a must; a short listing of any pre-planned content you wish to contribute is a plus. Three positions are available for primary contributors, and only those seriously willing to participate need apply. Graphics designers who are willing to create and design several smaller images, buttons and icons are also needed to help complete the initial layout design. Since the name of the website has not yet been finalized, all suggestions are appreciated. The name will take the format of ___ ___ Technical Facility.

Below is a brief overview, covering several key features of the website:

- For articles and tutorials, the following initial documents have been outlined:

[*]- Also released will be a medium-sized collection of bookmarks to frequently requested or specialized development and reference content.[*]- One of several concurrent and soon-to-be publically available projects is a minimalistic Linux distribution ("Ectro") which is aimed at providing a stable base platform for both servers and workstations. All network servers are currently running on this distribution. In addition to this, there are several other projects aimed towards developers and Linux users which will be released in the near future. Overall, this website promises to be a good resource for both developers, administrators and power users by helping to fill some of the void for more advanced content. I encourage everyone to check back on the 31st of January to see the finished product, as the full address to the website will be added to the end of this post as soon as a working version has been completed and established on the network. Thanks.

One of the best strengths of the internet is to bring knowledge together in a decentralized manner; what you're proposing is to take lots of knowledge and put it all in one place; this is a good idea, but you're reinvinting the wheel and making it square.

I suggest you make a site and post your [and submitters] thoughts and articles on it. Then it will be found by google, and promptly, by parties needing that information. This, in general, is what everyone does. And it works. If it aint broke, don't fix it.

You make a valid point about decentralization, but perhaps I should clearify. Google is the best for searching through article resources, but it obviously doesn't create many of them. I was not proposing to store thousands of articles in one centralized website, rather a moderate amount which would be custom written towards a specific set of topics. Then, as you put, it would be found by google and used by anyone in search of information.